Thursday, January 24

weekly gratitudes

a started post, finally published.... hoping to actually stick to this:)

so while waiting for one of my many routine checkups while pregnant, i read in O magazine how oprah for years has kept a journal of gratitudes. well, the sap that i'm turning into liked the idea, so i'm starting my own.

i'd like to start retrospectively, starting with the day i went into the hospital to have nora. three - five gratitudes each day, published at the end of the week. you may not want to read them! but i'm blogging them to keep them in time with other life happenings.

sunday 11.25.2012
1. my husband for his support in getting me to the hospital and trying his best to ease my pain, including overpriced tomato soup.
2. my puppy for her all consuming concern for me, her curling up next to me was some needed love.
3. a hospital very near home that once i got to, gave me a great sense of relief!
4. a team of nurses who genuinely cared.
5. the blessed epidural that allowed me to get the best sleep i'd had in weeks... while in labor!

monday 11.26.2012
1. for a calm and restful morning, which allowed me the mental strength to have my baby!
2. the crazy delivery nurse who told such tall stories, i couldn't help but be distracted from my fear. and my doctor who happened to be at the hospital that day for delivery!
3. m for being a very good labor coach and the epidural for continuing to make it all possible!
4. my big, healthy, wonderful baby girl arriving safely and the first time i was able to hold her and acknowledge it was her the whole time in there.
5. my first night as a mom, holding my baby.

tuesday 11.27.2012
1. having no other place to be but with my newborn in the hospital.
2. taking photos of my little one and dressing her in real clothes.
3. the first day as a family.

wednesday 11.28.2012
1. my baby being healthy, with a few medical scares, coming out great.
2. getting to take her home! the greeting from our puppy and getting settled.
3. sitting next to the christmas tree, where i had been a few days ago wondering when i wouldn't be pregnant!

thursday 11.29.2012
1. first full day at home, all of us here and cozy.
2. rebellion check at the pediatrician office and an awesome doctor.
3. first family walk!

friday 11.30.2012
1. a body that is mending, slowly, but having done so much, quite fast too.
2. starting to get a routine together.
3. napping after a sleepless night with nora.

OMG! I've been at "camp" for a couple years and away from your weblog; tell me you aren't finished with it! Hey, a beautiful life is never complete, right? Lol! Since you stopped writing I don't think I've done anything to the house except some antler stuff. Some coat racks and a chandelier, I guess. Have you ever worked in antler?

Aaah! I just realized that "camp" makes it sound like I was in jail! The "big house"! LOL!

How about those baby costumes, tho? When my nieces were little, I made them turtle costumes to crawl around in. Super cute. They didn't like having the same costume, tho, so I spray painted one of them gray. Then we had one lil baby turtle and one big, round mouse or rat or something! But she liked it OK.

Still making my way through all the old posts here that I missed. I’m sorry I didn’t get to see them “live,” but it’s great stuff! Like, even when you already know that Ross’s baby turns out OK, it’s still fun to watch it as a rerun on FREINDS!

So, a post from a few months back got me thinking, and I’d love love love to see your take on it. Have you ever had any luck painting windows? Not the trim and wood parts, but the glass.

Here’s the project: I have two windows that I don’t like to look out of. There’s nothing wrong with the windows themselves—they look through just fine—but they point at my neighbor’s chicken coop, which just makes me want to puke. I thought that a cute solution would be to paint over the windows. I first tried blue, but then almost no light came in, and my sewing room became useless. I scraped the blue off, and I tried painting them white. White lets a little more light inside (still not great for sewing, but workable ☺ ), but when I looked at the windows from the outside it looked to me like a kidnapper’s house!! Only those chickens will probably ever look at the window, but I am not interested in having any one think that I’m hiding a kidnap room. That room is for sewing only!!!

What do you think? Have you ever painted over a window without making it look a) scary, or b) too dark inside? Maybe this is a springtime proj, but we’d love to see your take!

OK. A new project I'm working on:You ever try peeling and orange so you end up with a peeled orange (for eating, lol) and a single piece of peel (for ...)?So I'd been wondering what to do with these super peels, and it came to me: stitch those puppies back up! I've been doing it for a couple weeks, and it's super cool. You sort of end up with a Frankenstein orange, and then they dry out into mummy oranges, and they're kind of funky!Here's the thing tho. What should I do with these craft oranges? I think they'd be cool Christmas tree ornaments, but Xmas is long gone. I've been stacking them on window sills, and at first they gave a nice Margaritaville vibe, but they're are so many bo now! We love oranges. You can barely see it the laundry room window, which is one of my favorites :(

What do you think? I want to keep making these, and I trust your designer's intuition.

I'm interested in seeing some recipes and cooking techniques here!! Anything fun in your pot?! (That could be the title!)

I've been trying to figure out chowder. It seems like restaurants can make chowder out of just about anything, but I'm not getting it! For example: I want to make pumpkin chowder, because we have lots of pumpkins. I take pumpkin and mix it with ... salt ... cream ... and water? What else goes into chowder?! LOL! I guess I need to get to know my herbs and spices better! Same thing happened with my lobter chowder. Lobter ... salt ... cream ... ??? LOL. I got the lobter for free, but it still seemed like a waste because what I ended up with was hot but not good. :(